Monday, July 29, 2013

...various things come together. At the weekend, I took my final exams after five years of study, with a sense of a project completed, an era coming to and end. It will feel strange not having a specific essay or piece of work always hovering somewhere in the mind. I have been studying on buses and on railway journeys, rarely going anywhere without a book and study guide and notes...

Then a great parcel arrived, and was opened with considerable excitement because it came from my publisher and marked the completion of another project, namely

AUNTIE'S NEW BOOKS

representing the past several months of work. Unusually, I have THREE books published this year. And here they all are, shiny and new and just arrived from Gracewing Publishing.

An author, as part of a standard contract, receives six copies of each book on publication. I sat holding my books for a satisfying few moments. Then I spent a happy half-an-hour wrapping and posting some copies to various people (godchildren, people who have helped w. the books, etc). And now I am on my way to visit an elderly relative, with a book for her tucked my luggage.

...on the internet. Some 3 million young people, praying together. Although the mainstream media focused on the crowds and the sheer amazing spectacle of it all, the reality - as anyone who has been to WYD recognises - is in the prayer, the times of silence, the extraordinary experience of being at Mass with such a sense of unity of purpose among such a gigantic number. One commentator noted that during one time of utter silence, you could hear the swish of the waves on the sand...and this with some 3 million people present...

There was a sense of energy evident at Rio - and, despite (or perhaps because of?) the rain and cold, a sense of mirth. The dancing flash mob thing was fun : our Medieval ancestors would have approved. The jollity and the willingness of bishops and clergy to enter into the spirit of the thing - most of them rather stiffly raising hands and turning around and so on, but the thought was there - sent out a cheery message. But the great reality of WYD is in the fact that people come together to show their faith in Christ and their bond with the Church: something needed more and more in a world in which Christians face immense challenges. Most of what goes on - early morning prayers, Masses in churches and chapels across the WYD city and its suburbs, hymns and rosaries and hours of adoration, talks, catechesis, counsel, advice - doesn't get noticed by the TV or the bloggers. The latter includes the inevitable wannabe journalists who pick on an item highlighted by the mainstream media and add a comment and slant, usually missing the main point.

...very crowded, lots of holiday visitors etc. The Cathedral Choir School has closed for the summer, so no young choristers, but a fine men's choir.

I had arranged to meet a young American couple - who had contacted me via this Blog - on the steps. They are visiting London to make arrangements for a longer stay, as work will ring them here for six months starting in September. We ended up spending a very happy day together - Mass at the Cathedral, a walk around Westminster, then a boat trip to the Tower, prayers together at the site of the More/Fisher martyrdom...all this interspersed with much lively talk and breaks for coffee and sandwiches...they are of the JPII/Benedict/World Youth Day generation in America, for whom things like World Youth Days in Cologne and Sydney and Madrid, the annual March for Life, the local Pro-Life Dinner, are the background and sub-culture of a lively Catholicism. Newly-weds, they had just come from Rome where they received a wedding blessing from Pope Francis - it was fun to hear about walking through the streets of Rome in wedding-clothes with people calling out greetings and congratulations, and lining up in the hot sunshine in St Peter's...it made me feel rather agreeably aunt-like and mature, married for over 30 years...

Saturday, July 27, 2013

...began with exams at the Amigo Hall, at St George's Cathedral, Southwark. Final exams after five years of study at the Maryvale Institute. It was in this same room, a couple of months ago, that Auntie and her family celebrated with friends after the investiture as DSG: it was strange to be coming back here in the very different circumstances of a formal exam.Neat tables and chairs set out far apart in rows, people nervously chatting, then "Please come and take your seats", and each of us allotted a place marked with a name and number.... One and a half hours for the first paper. I had bought four brand-new roll-point pens at the £-shop in Deptford. A break for a cup of tea and then the next paper...

And then it was over, and we chatted and wished each other well...I lunched with a colleague, at a small café near Waterloo, a tradition established in our group over the years, and we reminisced...

Then after handshakes and a "See you at the graduation!" we parted, and the second half of the day began. In the train out to Wimbledon, I hurriedly freshened up and donned my Best Hat. This Hat was also last worn for the DSG (and before that, it was worn at Westminster Hall for the visit of Pope Benedict, which happened to coincide with Auntie and J's 30th Wedding Anniversary...). It's a dear little hat, with a veil that goes over the front and swoops up at the side...v. trendy when I first bought it for my going-away outfit back in 1980 and now it's right back in fashion again!

And so to the Church of the Sacred Heart at Wimbledon, for the glorious wedding of some dear friends, William and Lucy. They are stalwarts of the Catholic Writers Guild and also of the Fellowship of St James, and it was suitable that their wedding was celebrated near St J's Feast Day. Superb Music - a Byrd Mass. Scripture readings done by Christopher Howse, and by Fr Deacon Richard Downer. The bride wore a most beautiful dress and veil, there were two smart page-boys and a gracious Matron of Honour, and we all sang the rousing hymns and the Mass was concelebrated by a number of clergy including a Jesuit, a Benedictine from Downside and a priest from the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. The day's oppressive heat melted into a magnificent rainstorm as we gathered for a superb reception in the parish hall, with delicious food and lashings of champagne and a wonderful joyful time of celebration. As things finally drew to a close I went on to visit a beloved elderly relation nearby, taking with me some of the lovely chocolate mousses in the tiny individual cups, and we sat and enjoyed these together, and talked of weddings and happy things...

... have issued a strong message on marriage, sent to every Catholic Church in England and Wales for this Sunday. It is a timely and inspiring call to be witnesses to the truth, noting that following the enactment of the new law on same-sex unions, Catholics may now feel "strangers in their own land". The Church can never accept the validity of same-sex marriage.

"We try to present and live by Catholic teaching as given by God for the ultimate good for each person. This may indeed lead us to feel, in these matters, out of step with popular culture. But that is our calling and not a matter for discouragement. Rather, with the confidence of faith, we stay resolute, encouraging one another and all who recognize the values we wish to uphold."

...for the next few days include a visit to the FAITH Movement Summer Session, and a talk at the Evangelium conference. Then to Bury St Edmunds, to join the team of pilgrims walking to Walsingham on the John Paul II Walking Pilgrimage. This Pilgrimage is in prayer for the New Evangelisation. Our country is thirsting for truth. We are called to deep prayer and to witness to the Gospel...

The old Abbey at Bury St Edmunds is the place where Magna Carta was first drawn up. King John in due course signed it at Runnymede Island. The Abbey was destroyed centuries later under Henry VIII. We will be having Mass in its picturesque ruins. The celebrant will be a young newly-ordained priest, Father Henry Whisenant, who has been a faithful pilgrim on the John Paul II Walk in previous years.

Magna Carta begins with a strong message "that the English Church should be free".

...a Mass at St James Church, Spanish Place, attended by the Spanish Ambassador and a vast congregation. The tragedy in Spain - the train crash with so many victims, among them large numbers of pilgrims about to celebrate St James Day at Compostella - gave a solemn note. The Mass was Haydn (Missa Sancti Nicolai) - with Credo III in which we could all join, and a special Salve Regina at the end of the Bidding Prayers, for the train victims...

The final hymn was "Jerusalem the golden", absolutely glorious, with its descriptions of Heaven "And bright with many an angel, and all the martyr throng..."

The Ordinariate had been specially invited, and the parish group from Precious Blood was there in force, with Father Christopher walking in procession with the other clergy, and all of us singing at the tops of our voices.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

...Pope Francis is in Rio with the great crowds for World Youth Day. You can get some interesting snippets of background on WYD here...

I am sure there will be some chaos and some big admin. problems at WYD in Rio, but the whole WYD event has over the past couple of decades been such a glorious celebration of faith and such a boost for the Church, and it has grown and grown and grown...the joy and goodwill of the young people is so attractive - literally, it attracts, it makes people see that this is what being a Christian can mean.

It is not merely that we as Christians live as many people once did - with a sense that life has a meaning and a hope and a purpose. It is not just that we are saying "We are what you once were - what you once believed, we still believe and love and cherish". It is much more than that: it is an affirmation of eternal truths, a sense of looking forward, of offering a message that holds the key to the future.

Watching the scenes in Rio brought back memories of Madrid a couple of years ago. The vast crowds, the dreadful heat, the dramatic thunderclaps and great zigzags of lightning, the calm presence of dear Papa Benedict amid the storm, the scent of the grass as it soaked up the rain, and the beauty of young voices, over a million of them, singing together....this summer, some of the young men who were with the group with which I travelled to Madrid were ordained as priests for the diocese of Southwark. Deo gratias.

The next World Youth Day may be in Poland. In the more distant future...London?

...as we gathered at Westminster Cathedral for Mass and then the History walk. One of the concelebrants at Mass was Father Julian Green, who is a lecturer at Maryvale. I went to find him to say hello after Mass, and we had a great chat. I have so enjoyed my studies at Maryvale and hope to go on to do more...

But my big exams are on Saturday and a lot depends on that...

The History walk, planned months ago, was on a Royal theme and we went through St James Park, and had planned to finish at Buckingham Palace. We told ourselves that it was absurd to join a great queue of people just to see a formal notice on an easel announcing the birth of the Royal baby...but we joined the queue anyway, and it was all fun and happy, with people taking photographs and everyone - including the police - hugely enjoying themselves. A little bit of history...

We always finish the History Walks with prayer, so gathered together in a small circle and prayed for the Queen, and the Royal family, and the new baby Prince, and our dear country...

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

...in London, and the great blessing of glorious rain. Blissful, great splashy drops on the scorched earth and the brown grass.

The media has gone loopy about the Royal birth: people are so glad to have a sense of stability and something traditional around which to rally. You can read Auntie's take on the whole thing here...

Curiously, I booked, some months ago, a London History Walk for this evening, with a Royal theme. Meet 6.30pm (after the 5.30pm Mass) on the steps of Westminster Cathedral. All welcome, no need to book. We will be walking across St James' Park and looking at lots of Royal links...the plan was to finish at Buckingham Palace, but if the crowds are too great we may go into Green Park instead and finish with a short prayer there under the trees....

Monday, July 22, 2013

...on Saturday, and a FAITH Family day organised by local members of the FAITH Movement. Father Dylan James of Shaftesbury gave an excellent presentation on the central importance of the family, its spiritual significance, the rights of parents, the beauty of it all.

Auntie spoke about celebrating feasts and seasons, with info on all sorts of things like pub signs and nursery rhymes and the origins of old sayings and so on.

The venue was excellent: a school set in the most beautiful grounds, with a lovely chapel. Children spent a happy time rolling down the sloping lawn. Sheep baaah-ed in a neighbouring field. A big picnic lunch brought us all together on a pleasant terrace. It was a wonderful day, and later the organisers took me back to their home for a cheery family supper - much talk and laughter in the cool evening in a garden scented with roses and with raspberries ripening on bushes and a plum tree laden with green fruit promising a purple harvest.

...the Australian Ambassador to the Holy See and his wife, currently visiting London. They are old friends and it was grand to catch up. We first met over 30 years ago, and Jamie and I have often been guests in their welcoming family home in Sydney. It was a pleasure to play host to them for an evening in London. I remember a previous visit when the idea of World Youth day in Sydney was first being suggested, and knowing then that it was a terrific idea and that it would be a huge success...it was a great highlight of beloved Pope Benedict's pontificate, and it brought many blessings to Australia...

Today another World Youth day begins in Brazil. Pix of dear Pope Francis trundling his suitcase into the plane at Rome and heading off. It will go well. It's encouraging to see the pictures of young people carrying high the great Cross, and singing and praying together. What a rich legacy John Paul left us...

I am off to Australia in August. London is sizzling in a ghastly heatwave at the moment. People are talking about the glorious sunshine etc. Hmmm. Ants are flying everywhere and everything feels sticky and disagreeable. The prospect of swapping summer for an Australian winter is very attractive.

The trip to Australia begins with a flight to the USA. You can meet Auntie at this year's EWTN Family festival, which runs from August 17th-18th. More info here...

Friday, July 19, 2013

...to London. I really dislike hot weather, and today has been horrid.

Westminster Cathedral was however beautifully cool. Seated in the confession-queue, I felt peaceful and calm. But it was too peaceful. Nothing was moving. No priest hearing confessions. I whispered to the chap next to me that perhaps we should ring the bell and summon a priest from the sacristy? No, he whispered back. Confessions don't start till 11.30 - and it was still just 11 am. Hmmmm. Half an hour to wait. I whispered back that I was going to go and have some coffee...and left my sandwiches on the chair to mark my place. He whispered back that he'd guard them. Coffee and a pastry in the cool downstairs café. Back to the confession queue. My place still marked, packet of sandwiches still there . "It did occur to me" whispered the chap "that I could have taken them, and then gone straight to confession about it..."

Later, shriven, I dropped in to the bookshop next door. My book on Bl John Paul is still selling - should I produce a new version as he is due to be canonised soon?

Met Fr Mark Vickers in the bookshop, and we chatted about the success of the Day of Faith. Tomorrow I am due at a FAITH Family day in Shaftesbury, and then the next big event of the FAITH Movement is of course the Summer Session: I hope to drop in at some stage...

And so on to Chelsea, and a meeting of the Association of Catholic Women. Lots to plan for next year, which is our 25th anniversary. We have many projects in hand, and there is a lot happening...but a big celebration would be fun! And we talked about our recent visit to the Vocations Centre at Whitstable, a very happy day...

Thursday, July 18, 2013

...St Philomena's, my old school, will sing at this year's Towards Advent Festival (Sat Nov 23rd) and this morning, in searing heat, I went to talk to the headmistress, Miss Maria Noone, about it all and to make arrangements. I have been back to St Ph's a good many times since I left, but it is still always a strangely moving experience. Today, the girls were evidently having a celebratory end-of-term activities day: wearing their own clothes instead of uniforms, they were enjoying various games and cycle rides around the grounds, and as I sat in the beautiful old mansion planning the November festival, a lively group on the upper lawn was engaging in a tumbling race, apparently oblivious to the heat.

The school is evidently thriving, and has a bustling and cheerful feel. Everyone is polite and friendly. I slipped into the chapel - virtually unchanged since my own days. The only real difference was a notice reminding everyone to genuflect on entering, some cards with the Apostles Creed - all linked with the Year of Faith - and a strange device near the door which looked like a sort of beaded curtain draped over a hanger. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a long row of many rosaries, all ready and waiting for girls sort pick them up and use them. Rather touching.

The grounds were scorching in the sun, and the lake and causeway, the island and and the grotto and all the surrounding area, are now one great mass of brambles and thick tangled undergrowth. It's inevitable really, because the local water-table has gone down and there just isn't the water there now. But it seems pity: I remember when there was water in the lake, and back before my time, the girls took out boats...back in the mansion, a set of photographs in the staffroom shows girls from the 1920s - even their faces look utterly different from today, and one could just imagine their tight-vowelled voices - gathered self-consciously round the sundial for an "informal scene".

It will be good having the choir to sing at Towards Advent. And if you go to the old swimming bath building in the grounds, you will still find my name, as I carved it into the brickwork long, long ago...

...and I was hurrying across the inner suburbs to give a talk at a crowded church hall near Croydon. However, the talk went well, and the ladies of the Townswomen's Guild seemed to enjoy it all. Topic: Caroline Chisholm.

I am off to Australia in August, some 35 years after I first went there and learned Carolin'e story...

Spent the afternoon in a cool garden with a beloved elderly relative, and am now about to hurry back to London again to collect essays for the Schools Bible Project: judging this week.

Date for your diary: Friday Oct 11th, Catholic Women of the Year Luncheon. Funds raised this year will go to the Maryvale Institute for scholarships for parish catechists. Your opportunity to help ensure that children in Britain learn the Faith. More info here, and the four Catholic Women of the Year 2013 are detailed here...

...the baptism of a small great-niece. Some fine singing - led by one of the baby's young uncles - a former chorister of Westminster Cathedral - who sang the psalm as the parents and godparents walked in procession from the church door where they had signed the child with the Sign of the Cross... the whole ceremony was the more touching and memorable because the celebrant was the baby's own grandfather, a Deacon.... there were readings and a fine chanted Litany of the Saints...at the font small cousins gathered around to watch as the water was poured, and the baby anointed and so on, and then later we all joined in the prayers...

And then on to a family party, with pink balloons decorating a gazebo in the sunny garden, and a magnificent array of cakes, and champagne, and lots of happy talk, and children running about, and dogs, and the baby being cuddled by grandparents and aunts...

Later, much later, I caught the train home after a gentle wander around the beautiful town with its houses in mellow Cotsworld stone, and its big War Memorial in a l;ittle riverside park, and its fine old bridge with fragments of an ancient chapel...as the train headed towards London, the sun was setting over the land we call England, a great flood of crimson and pink staining the sky, and not fading until finally the dusk deepened into darkness. And now there is a new Christian to inherit it all, and she will be part of the new adventures of this new century.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

...for a small embroidered lavender-cushion. The cross-stitch on the cover has the name of my newest great-niece, and the cushion is a little commemorative gift for her Baptism, which takes place tomorrow. It goes into a bag of gifts - she's also getting a book about Jesus (from the CTS - they have beautiful things for children), and there are various useful baby-things...

The lavender comes from Joe's garden. He lives opposite us and his garden is a joy. Every year he brings across great bunches of lavender, and I repay him with jars of home-made blackberry jam. We unite on neighbourly projects - he was a stalwart of the arrangements for the Street Party for the Queen's Jubilee, and leads the campaign to clean up the walkway that leads through to the main road and is too often used as a dumping-ground for rubbish (last week, a sofr - most weeks, beer-cans and pizza-boxes and greasy chip-bags. Oh, and dog-pooh...).

Earlier this week, Joe's lavender was still green. In the hot sunshine it has bloomed, and this afternoon I brought in a great bundle, scenting the kitchen as I prepared it for the christening gift...

Tomorrow morning I'll set off early to catch a Mass at Westminster Cathedral before hurrying on to a train to the west country for the family gathering. I've been asked to do a reading at the Baptism and I'm touched by this.

The years rush by as you get older- they merge into one another...it seeems such a short while ago that we were gathering for the baptism of this baby's father, on a happy morning in the early 1980s...just yesterday, but for him a lifetime ago, and now the next generation...

... Parliament has gone ahead with enforcing the pretence that two men can marry, and we will find that anyone who wants to assert the truth about marriage will face all sorts of problems ranging from loss of a job to public humiliation and official reprimands. Thus will teachers, magistrates, clerical workers in everyday office jobs, trades union members, doctors and nurses, social workers, school governors, local borough councillors and all sorts of other people be nagged and harried and bullied into pretending to agree to the lie.

Things are going to be very dreary and horrid in the Britain of the immediate future.

Friday, July 12, 2013

...in the charming harbour town of Whitstable, the Catholic diocese of Southwark has established its Vocations Centre, under the direction of Father Stephen Langridge. And he and his team gave a wonderful welcome to members of the Association of Catholic Women and the Ladies Ordinariate Group when we arrived today on pilgrimage.

Mass in the beautiful chapel, the young men leading the singing of the psalms and the Kyrie , Sanctus and Agnus Dei...a delicious lunch - pasta and salmon, wine - in the pleasant refectory... an excellent talk from Fr Stephen with a thoughtful and positive message on assisting people to follow God's call for their lives...the Rosary in the sunlit garden around a statue of Our Lady...a walk by the sea and exploration of the harbour...

It is heartening to see positive things happening in the Church, and the enthusiasm of men giving themselves in service to God.

Around the sanctuary of the recently refurbushed chapel are the words, written in gold "Duc in altum..." spelling out Christ's command to put out into the deep and lower the nets for a catch. It all resonates here. Down by the sea, the fishermen were just bringing in their latest catch - Whitstable is of course famous for its fish and especially its oysters. The New Evangelisation involves putting out into the deep. Watch the good things coming from Whitstable over the next years.

...including those with mental impairment. Baroness Hollins spoke of this at a meeting of The Keys, the Catholic Writers' Guild. As always, we began with Mass at St Mary Moorfields, our Guild church. It was the feast of St Benedict, and Fr Peter Newby preached about him, and how the foundation of the Benedictine Order allowed a Christian life and culture to surmount the collapse of the old Roman Empire and usher in new chapters of history...as always, a friendly and convivial time over dinner, and then we gathered for the talk from Baroness Hollins. This focused on her work with adults with learning difficulties - specifically, on the provision of illustrated books for those who cannot read, assisting them with specific issues relating to their health and welfare and daily struggles. She also spoke on the latest ghastly attempt to introduce legalised euthanasia - yet another Bill is being introduced in the House of Lords - and the need to oppose this with vigour. Every human being has value.

With a warm and lively group such as The Keys, together for Mass and for a meal and for discussion of deep things centred on practical Christian care, there is a sense in which one can see how a Christian culture can indeed trascend a collapsing one. There is a "culture of death" in our country and the Western world - Baroness Hollins used the phrase - and the voice of Christian hope speaks with clarity, opening up towards something new...

Thursday, July 11, 2013

...young people at a seminar on journalism and the media. They are polite and rather predictable...discussing topical events I introduced the subject of the Royal Baby, and raised ideas about what could be written in a feature on the subject. Baby names, the resonances of history, the awkwardness of having a name that might turn out to have the wrong associations...the future of Royalty...does it have any role...what on earth will things be like when William is king, let alone when his child reigns...but the girls, when left to produce ideas, came up with things about which brand of baby clothes Kate would choose, and how long it would take to get her figure back again.

London in sizzling heat. The girls at the seminar were cool and charming in summery wear: still in school mode, they had dressed for a warm busy day in London, not for the beach. Alas, moving on and writing this in Oxford Street, I'm viewing a different and unattractive scene: a great many people are rather plump these days, and wearing tight skimpy clothing in a hot city doesn't flatter them. Tight teeshirts over bulging tummies, tight shorts,...many look uncomfortably hot, some look scorched. Baseball hats make for a comedian-being-unfunny sadness, as do teeshirts with old slogans. Oh dear.

There's a feature in today's Daily Telegraph about my generation: 60 and up. It gloats that the over-60s are having a wonderful time, self-indulgent, 3 holidays a year, suntanned and relaxed, spending money that earlier generations either didn't have or felt should be passed to children and grandchildren. Oh, and apparently we're cheerfully abandoning marriages and finding "romance" via the Internet. It all sounds ghastly, and if that's what lots of us are really like, the young will loathe and despise us and see no reason to care for us when we are fading and frail.

It is easy to offer some respect to the generation that is 80-plus...childhood and teenage years in war and then a young adulthood coping with its aftermath. We were taught to honour them. But today's young people, who have in any case not been trained to think in terms of respecting older folk or honouring the status of parents/teachers/authority figures, will not necessarily see any reason to regard the newly-emerging elderly of the 60s generation as being of special worth.

Waddling about bragging about new sexual exploits in one's old age sounds simply horrible.

Christianity is the only sanity, a call to that "more excellent way"...

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

...material on the website of the Coalition for Marriage. The government's weird determination to impose new ways of talking and writing about everyday things is just horrible. And serious. Have you written yet to some members of the House of Lords, currently still discussing this?

And be prepeared for tough times ahead, big legal battles, a long hard campaign.

Christian truth and common sense will prevail, but each one of us needs courage. And tenacity. This is a long one. Keep going.

...is where I'll be on Friday, with other members of the Association of Catholic Women, and the Ladies Ordinariate Group. We are visiting the new Vocations Centre at Whistable, Mass, lunch, a talk, and then some time by the sea (ice creams, paddling...) and pottering around the very delightful town. We'll finish with the Rosary and Tea at the little garden shrine in the Vocatons Centre...

On Monday, a big group from Precious Blood parish at London Bridge took part in a History Walk around the Borough. Catherine of Aragon, St George, Sir Christopher Wren, Chaucer and Shakespeare are all part of the history here...it's right at the heart of some of the great events of our country's history and traditions and culture. On a golden summer evening, with the tide of the Thames lapping out to reveal old landing-stages and layers of history, and St Paul's standing majestically against the skyline on the opposite bank, and stories of Viking battles on London Bridge, somehow we all felt very much at one with the centuries past....

We finished at The George tavern, and after an evening of talking and explaining history to a large crowd against the general backgound London noise, Auntie relished the first glorious gulps of a cold gin-and-tonic with a chunk of lemon...

Sunday, July 07, 2013

...staying with dear friends...sunshine on villages with that sleepy shuttered look, lines and lines of vines , long agreeable talks late into the warm summer night with the sound of crickets. Lots of children at Mass this morning, several evidently due to be baptised and being catechised and invited to take part in a sort of pre-baptismal ceremony. "This is pagan France, and the priest is working hard, finding ways to evangelise" sighed my friends...

There is good news in the French church - the New Movements are gathering strength and support: among the announcements at Mass was one about a forthcoming ordination in one of the new communities. And there is a massive sense of opposition to the government's schemes to redefine marriage: the "Everyone together" movement to support true marriage has united people across divisions of race and religion and region...

But there are also huge challenges. Islam is growing and flourishing as it is here in Britain. "Twenty years ago, I was working with Islamic friends and colleagues and that was all normal and unremarkable" said a friend "It's different now: women in full-length veils, a very strong sense of Islamic identity and strength: it's a completely different situation."

While in France, news of the Pope's new encyclical, so we printed it off and read it. You can read the influence of BXVI all the way through, with the references to Nietzsche, and Dante, and with some of his favourite quotations ("Nous avons cru en l'amour").... The whole style and "feel" of it seemed to me to be v.v. BXVI, and I love it! Also joyful, JOYFUL news that Papa Francis has approved the canonisation of John Paul the Great.

...at Precious Blood Church, London Bridge, with a glorious Mass for the patronal festival, Mgr John Broadhurst of the Ordinariate presiding. Aftrewards, everyone crowding into the parish room for something fizzy and lots of cheerful talk...

I would love it if Pope Emeritus Benedict could know of the joyful things at the Ordinariate parish, and how Anglicanorum Coetibus has worked so well here...I actually wrote to him a little while back, and sent him a copy of the parish newsletter, and had a nice acknowledghement from the secretariat, so one hopes...

Celebrations at Pr Blood continue - some of the beautiful work done by children in the schools project run by the Ladies Ordinariate Group is on display, and this coming Sunday sees a visit by Mgr Keith Newton for Mass and a celebration parish lunch, and then on Monday there is a Parish History Walk, led by JB. I walked through the route today...this is a corner of London with so much history: the Bishop of Winchester's Palace and the Clink prison, and Guy's Hospital, and John Harvard, and St Mary Overie where Chaucer is buried...Shakespeare lived in this area (and the Globe theatre is of course here, too), and there are all sorts of other important links...the pubs alone are crammed with history(the George, and the Canterbury Tales...) and then there is the river...

This afternoon, another History Walk around Westminster Cathedral. It is good to bring back memories of Bl John Paul's visit in 1982, and of Benedict's in 2010...the Cathedral is always a work in progress, and in recent years, we have seen the addition of the John Henry Newman mosaic, and the St David mosaic blessed by BXVI (speaking in passable Welsh!), and work has just started on addition to the St George's Chapel...